It is undeniably brilliant in important ways.
You won't see
another movie like this one. American made and winner of the Palme d'Or at
Cannes, TheTree of Life is a grand, bold risk of a film. You may like it,
or not; you may understand it, or not. But it is undeniably brilliant in
important ways. Such risks can spring only from a creative mind that wrestles
big questions. That would be writer/director Terrence Malick who has leapt up
from a sea of summer mediocrity to ask us to think..
A telegram is
delivered to a mother. It is an announcement that her son is dead; it is also
firm notice that we are about to navigate the tree of life through this 1950s
Texas family - Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt) and Mrs. O'Brien (Jessica Chastain),
their son Jack (Hunter McCracken) and Jack's two younger brothers. Jack is the
pivot for the family and for the movie.
When we meet
him as an adult (Sean Penn) we realize the flashbacks we are seeing are Jack's
actual memories, indelible flashes of his childhood that tell the family story.
The formal father dispenses love and discipline with the tough demands he
believes necessary to the boys' future success. The deferential mother,
contained in everything but her love for her boys, is an ethereal presence, a
permanent, reliable source of love.
It is she who
says at the outset that nature is brutal and selfish, pleasing only itself, and
that only looking toward God can bring grace. And so the conflict is drawn -
nature and grace - as we explore the tree of life. The forces of nature are
always there - water, fire - weather, but grace? Everyone in this family calls
out in some way "Where were you (God)?" - when our brother/son died.
Since it is
futile - in a two hour movie - to speculate on the state of the universe before
earth began, Malick presents us with an unexpectedly long period of painterly
abstraction that flows into prolonged and humbling filming of volcanoes,
waterfalls, and storms. He has covered himself well. This could be either the
big bang or God's work. After the arrival of creatures -jellyfish and dinosaurs
- triggers the life cycle - we settle at last in Texas to watch the O'Briens
fill their children's world with nature and love.
The loving
gestures in this family, the growth of the wonderfully wriggly boys as they play
in the outdoors are done nearly wordlessly and in a way that is absolutely
beautiful. Malick has managed a universal sweetness that may possibly affect
everyone in the audience on some personal level.
If the father
is the brutality of nature and the mother the path to grace, as Malick said
earlier, it has to be the way of one or the other. You can't have both. You'll
have many questions, but it's my guess you'll be glad you were there for this
astonishing deluge from Mr. Malick's original mind.
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